Political Economy, Political Theory and History

Italy’s wealth gap grows as real incomes fall for the majority, new research shows

The ten richest people in Italy now own as much wealth as almost 500,000 working class families put together. A little less than two thousand wealthy Italians, members of the super-rich club, have total assets of more than €169 billion (excluding the value of property).

“The wealth gap has grown,” according to research centre Censis. It finds that a company executive owns 5.6 times more assets than a worker, compared to approximately three times twenty years ago. Those working in the liberal professions, like lawyers, doctors and accountants, are worth 4.5 times that of a worker (4 times twenty years ago). An entrepreneur is worth more than 3 times that of a worker (2.9 times twenty years ago). ”

And those with the least have lost the most over the past two decades. Compared to twelve years ago, the annual family incomes of blue collar workers have fallen in real…